A recording of the great lost gig of 1983 has finally surfaced! However, before you get too excited, there's a few important things to note:
In an interview conducted by Peter Christoperson with John Balance, transcribed in the CD booklet to the Zos Kia / Coil split release Transparent, John remembers: “I remember playing a gig in Hackney with John and Min as Zos Kia / Coil, I think it was with The Apostles - It was a Cause for Concert evening. Dave 'Nanavesh' Farmer was there and that's all I remember – John [Gosling] had taken some MDA and it was the same set as Berlin, around the same time. The lost gig. I remember we decided we wanted to go psychedelic (Monochrome Psychedelia - a phrase we borrowed from ClockDVA's Adi Newton) from now on, attempting to re-invent the original Exploding Plastic Inevitable experience. Ideas Psychic TV later picked up on."
I somewhat doubt John's recollection is 100% accurate, but if we take him at his word, then here's what we know:
1. Sicktone
2. Baptism of Fire
3. Rape
4. Poisons
5. Truth
With Zos Kia
Other acts: Peter North, Atrittion
Debut performances of every song except “Baptism of Fire”
John Balance – stick bass
John Gosling – violin, bass, vocals
Min – drums, vocals
According to official Coil documents outlining the band’s history, the setlist was the same as the following gig at 1983-12-03 Atonal Festival II – Berlin, DE.
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Javier Hernando had for years uploaded the last song of what we now believe to be Peter North's set. He shared these full recordings of his with me and recalls: “Coil was just formed and this was almost his first concert, because his performance a few months earlier at the Air Gallery was more of a stunning Sado-surreal performance, inherited in some way from the Viennese activists, a field previously explored by Peter Christopherson in Coum Transmissions as he was also the magic powers of the music that in those first eighty was exposed in Psychic TV where also John Balance militated; Of him knew his fanzine Stabmental, apart from several photos of the duet at the same time of the performance (shared with Atrittion) that I recorded with a portable cassette… I've listened again the tape and now have the doubt if the track is really Coil. The first track of the tape I recognize because is the same that other recording live with Zos Kia but other part of the can be of Peter North (is strange the modificated sax or wind instrument) other usual participant in the Recession Studios and that this day share show with Coil and Atrittion.”
Indeed, the only recognizable Coil track is the first five minutes of the "Coil / Peter North" section, the song being "Baptism of Fire." On the tape Javier provided, “Baptism of Fire” seems like the final track of Coil’s set, as much silence and then a cut follow the song’s end, but there’s really no way of knowing for sure. How do we know it's from Recession? We don't, really, but it's undoubtedly the familiar song and it doesn't match any other recordings we know to be Coil / Zos Kia of the time. So yeah, we got a special recording, here!
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